Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level.”
-United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Change 2007 Synthesis Report
Human activity, such as burning fossil fuels for home heating, transportation and various industrial activities including mining, manufacturing and large-scale farming, is the primary cause of global climate change. Historically, this activity and the resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been the responsibility of the global North, or the wealthy, industrialized nations.
Yet the burden of climate change –extreme weather events, drought, flooding, crop failures, destroyed fisheries and loss of habitat and homeland– is being disproportionately borne by poor and marginalized communities of the global South, peoples who are the least responsible for the changes we are seeing in the world today.
Climate change is thus more than a question of environmental sustainability; it is a question of justice. KAIROS believes that climate justice involves making real reductions in carbon emissions as well as addressing the social and economic inequities between the rich and the poor—both of these are inextricably linked.
KAIROS Resources:
- Briefing paper: Federal Subsidies to Fossil Fuel Producers (No. 14, April 2008, PDF format)
- KAIROS policy paper: Re-energizing the Future: Faith and Justice in a Post-Petroleum World. Developing an ecumenical response to the fossil fuel crisis (December 2007, PDF format)
- Petition on subsidies to the oil and gas industry and federal initiatives for greenhouse gas emission reductions (November 2007, PDF format)
- KAIROS Media Backgrounder (November 2007, PDF format)
- Are Agrofuels Alternatives to Oil? (March 2007, PDF format)
Resources from other groups
(Note that these are offered for education and information and do not necessarily reflect KAIROS' policies.)
- African Church Leaders' Statement on Climate Change and Water (June 2008) PDF
- Climate Justice for All: Statement from the World Council of Churches (WCC) to the High-Level Ministerial Segment of the UN Climate Conference in Nairobi (November 17, 2006)
- Canadian Youth Climate Change Coalition (June 2006; PDF)
- World Council of Churches statement to the high level segment of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP11 and COP/MOP1) Montréal (December 9, 2005)
- Report on the 11th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1st Session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol COP11/MOP1 (December 2005)
- Moving Beyond Kyoto with Equity, Justice and Solidarity; A World Council of Churches Study Document (2004; PDF)
- Solidarity with Victims of Climate Change: Reflections on the World Council of Churches' Response to Climate Change (January 2002) PDF format; external web link.
Links to other groups
(Links will open in a new window; KAIROS is not responsible for the content of other sites and does not necessarily endorse all content.)
- Canadian Youth Climate Coalition
- Climate Action Network (KAIROS is a member of CANet)
- David Suzuki Foundation-- climate change Pembina Institute
- World Council of Churches' Climate Change Programme
